Timelines - 2002 and 2007

For my first wedding anniversary gift, I made my wife a timeline of our first year together: the trips that we took (we traveled a lot), the things that we did (lots of fests, a lot of evenings at the Schorsch which is a beer garden right on the lake in Fischbach) accompanied by pictures taken during the year. I'd been keeping a journal all year and this really made the effort of keeping the journal worthwhile.
I revisited the timeline this year as a way of showing how different our lives are today, mostly due to a two year old at home and another baby on the way.

I wasn't much surprised at the difference in the two timelines. I expected the second to be dominated by Asha, our two year old. What was a bit surprising was the things that occurred in both years that I included in one and not the other.

For instance, people visited us in 2002 as much as they did in 2007 but in 2002, I included pictures of people who visited but not them in the timeline. Going through my journal back then, it didn't strike me as important while in 2006, visitors were a rather important part of what occurred during the year.

I also hung out with friends with as much frequency and took as many pictures in both years. Granted, a lot of the hanging out was at playgrounds, parks, kid friendly areas but going through the pictures, those did not merit as much space as the things that Asha, my wife and I did together as a family. The family really has replaced anything else as the most important part of my life. If you'd asked me in 2002 what was mostly important, I would have said family as well but perhaps it wasn't all that true.

I prize the importance of ordinary events above anything else. I think that's what make good blogs, or good writing. People writing eloquently and meaningfully about their day to day events. I'm not sure I am able to do that. Writing that is. But perhaps writing isn't the only outlet.